I completed my bronze, silver and gold awards and continued to then be an Award Leader in my local Boys Brigade. I loved everything and the DoE award scheme and loved sharing this with others. It was while doing this, shortly after the tsunami hit Asia, that the DoE award in NI requested for volunteers to represent the award scheme to embark on a trip with Habitat for Humanity to Sri Lanka. I jumped at the chance.

We left on our trip in March 2006, however earlier that year we had the opportunity to meet HRH The Duke of Edinburgh himself at Hillsborough Castle, to chat with him about our upcoming trip.

This was such a memorable occasion; Prince Philip was so interested in our trip and seemed really proud we were embarking on it whilst representing the award. He even warned us to watch out for the curry which gave us all a good laugh! (He was right)!!

We spent 3 weeks in Balapatita where we built a house for a family - a husband and wife and their daughter- who had lost their home in the disaster. We also worked on a couple of other houses while we were there. It really was such a memorable experience in all; the DoE award scheme is a truly wonderful organisation with an amazing network of volunteers making it all happen.

Thank you so much Prince Philip!